


War Of Snakes

by SparkleMoose



Series: Snake Songs [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Everyone appears in this fic at one point or another, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sasuke Has Issues, Sasuke tries to fix those issues while dealing with his own issue, The Uchiha in General have Issues tho, it only kind of works
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-06-10 18:31:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6969286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparkleMoose/pseuds/SparkleMoose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last thing Sasuke wanted was to wind up in the past. Yet here he was, wandering into people who should be dead and trying to make a better future for them. He had the worst luck sometimes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Too Young To Die

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Angst, violence, Sasuke's various family issues, Uchiha issues in general. Also, this work completely disregards the Naruto ending, so there's that. WE'RE REWRITING CANON HERE AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR IT.
> 
> "But Moose!" You might be saying, "You have five other works in progress! Why start a new one?" The answer is because I'm trash and have been sucked into the time travel genre by well written fics written by other people so I decided to make my own. Also in this first part I've left something purposely vague bc Sasuke is not in a good Mental State at the moment and I wanted to showcase that in his scattered thoughts.
> 
> Anyway, on with the story!

Sasuke is certain of one thing.

He's dying. The hole through his chest is testament to that, he can feel life slipping away through his fingers.

He thinks dying feels a lot like the silk kimono's his mother used to wear for formal events. It's soft, like floating. Like falling asleep. Dying is peaceful, a quiet calm that is slowly overtaking his limbs.

Sasuke is tired. Tired and sore; the war against Madara and Kaguya had lasted years. Years of watching the Shinobi Alliance fall to ruins and years of watching as more and more people, both shinobi and civilians, fell then came back in mud mockeries of what they used to be.

More than one person had been struck down by a mud corpse that resembled their loved one.

Sasuke just considered himself lucky all the people he loved were ash. It was the Uchiha way to burn their dead, so when the Hokage had asked a six year old Sasuke what to do with the bodies of his clan Sasuke, young as he was, had ordered them burned.

From fire to ash, that was the Uchiha way. Sasuke had burned Itachi's body after killing him, even when he thought his brother was a traitor he still had enough respect for him to burn his body.

There are no bodies to use to as an attack on his already fragile mind.

Perhaps that why they put him the forefront of the war. He had no attachments for Kaguya or Madara to use against him. Sasuke had once had Naruto and Sakura, and while he would admit caring for them as friends he wouldn't hesitate to strike them down should they turn against him either.

When they had died, Kaguya had make the mistake of sending their mud corpses to attack him. Sasuke had laughed, a wild light in his eyes, and struck them down without a thought.

They were not his team.

(Taka had long since fallen, scattered to the wind and leaving a hole in Sasuke's heart.

Taka had been _his_ damn it.)

Madara had taken everything from Sasuke through his manipulations and Sasuke wants him dead. He wants Obito dead too, each time he looks at his cousin all he can see are the faces of his dead clansmen and he blames Obito for it as much as he blames Madara. But the two of them have come to a truce of sorts as long as the war continues neither of them will attack the other. Obito had been manipulated too, and he wants Madara dead as much as Sasuke does.

Sasuke had fought for the people that were unwillingly dragged into the war, for those who had been wronged by the system of government the Elemental Nations had.

He had fought for change, for the hope that after the war was over people would realize that a system built on secrecy and battle wasn't conducive to peace.

But the war is nearly over and Sasuke is dying. His old team had died before him, Naruto had been the first to go, struck down defending Konoha, their last stronghold, even as it had been overrun by mud mockeries of people he had cared about. Sakura was next, killed while ensuring that the injured and dying made it to safety and taking down a horde of those mud corpses in the process.

The war is nearly over, and Team Seven is nearly dead.

Kakashi is lying next to him, breathing heavily and clenching a wounded shoulder.

He doesn't have much time left either, especially not if the hordes keep advancing as they do.

Obito's appearance isn't a surprise, decimating the mud corpses as they get closer, neither is his snarling rage.

"You idiots," Obito says, mouth fixed into a snarl, "You fucking idiots."

Sasuke would laugh if he could, Obito has never been the prime example of an Uchiha.

The again, Sasuke muses, neither has he.

Uchiha aren't suppose to let their emotions get the better of them.

Neither Sasuke or Obito have been very good at that.

Kakashi cracks a smile from behind his torn mask.

"Eh, Obito," he says, "Looks like you're late."

"Fuck off Kakashi," Obito says, "Fuck off, if you think I'm letting you or the last Uchiha here die then you are sorely mistaken."

"We're dying Obito," Kakashi says, voice grave, and Sasuke wants to laugh, "There is nothing you can do about that."

Obito is silent then.

"I guess I'll have to prove you wrong then won't I?"

Sasuke feels the shifting of chakra in the air around him, twisting and pulling him toward something.

It's the last thing he knows before he loses consciousness.

* * *

Sasuke wakes slowly, consciousness returning at a snail's pace. It's odd, the past three years Sasuke has had little time to rest fully, always out fighting, defending. He hasn't had a good sleep in literal years.

It's when he realizes that he's suppose to be fighting a war that he snaps fully awake. One black eye and one purple Rinnegan eye staring at the wooden ceiling above him.

"Kai," Sasuke says, attempting to dispel whatever genjutsu had been cast on him.

"Kai," he says again when the first attempt doesn't work. Nothing changes.

Finally, Sasuke resorts to activating his Sharingan.

He forces down the hysterical laugh that bubbled up in his throat.

Nothing changes.

It seemed that Sasuke was actually in a wooden hut. Stripped to his waist and with bandages covering most of his chest. Judging his chakra levels, he decides that while they are not at their max they are certainly enough to force answers out of whoever captured him.

While he doesn't know why anyone working with Kaguya would save his life, he doesn't want to test his luck and assume that whoever rescued him is an ally.

Even if they were an ally, there aren't many medic nins left, and none that would have been able to heal the mortal wound Sasuke had been dealt.

Vaguely, Sasuke wonders if he's in the Pure World, if the after life is a wooden hut and if he'll be able to see his parents again.

The thought lasts until he feels a presence outside the door, someone, a woman Sasuke assumes judging by her voice, is humming as they unlock the door.

Sasuke immediately sits up, his eyes, one spinning red and the other purple, staring at the door in trepidation.

The door opens, and an old woman with salt and pepper hair and purple chakra markings on her face enters. The woman raises an eyebrow at his tense posture and sets the basket full of herbs she was carrying on the the table in the center of the room.

Sasuke doesn't relax.

The woman chuckles.

"You Uchiha," she says, "Always so tense."

Sasuke narrows his eyes, registering her small chakra reserves. His own, half full as they were, were still larger than hers.

That didn't make her any less dangerous, you shouldn't make assumptions about how strong someone is based on their chakra reserves alone.

Sakura had taught him that.

"What do you want from me?" Sasuke asks, because if training under Orochimaru and three years of war have taught him anything it's that everyone has motives. It's merely a matter of unearthing them.

The old woman chuckles.

"Would you believe me if I said I took you in out of the kindness of my heart?"

"No." Sasuke's answer is simple, curt.

It seems to amuse her.

"I thought so," she says, "I won't bother you with lies then, I healed you because you seem interesting. You don't wear a Konoha headband and yet you are obviously an Uchiha. So tell me, what was an Uchiha doing half dead more than fifty kilometers from Konoha?"

"Exactly what it looked like," Sasuke deadpans, even as his mind short circuits from the mere idea of Konoha still standing, "Dying."

The woman's brown eyes narrow, "Don't play with me boy," she warns, "I could have sent a hawk to Konoha at anytime. It's out of my good graces that you're still here and not in T&I."

The woman has a point of course.

Sasuke choses to ignore it.

"Now," the woman continues, "Were you on a mission? If so I'm sure we can contact your clan and let them know that you're alive."

Sasuke's heart nearly stops at the mention of his clan, his dead clan, the clan massacred by Obito and Itachi, and yet she's speaking of them like they're still alive.

She's speaking as if Konoha is more than ashes, like the village is still standing.

This isn't a genjutsu, Sasuke's Sharingan confirms as as much, but Sasuke remembers Obito's chakra swirling around him, twisting and pulling him toward something. It had felt similar, like Obito was using Kamui on him.

The thought of Kamui jolts Sasuke's scrambled thoughts. Sasuke knows that Obito had been working on a fail safe in case everything went sideways, knows that that son of a bitch would be stupid enough to use it on a dying person.

Obito reminds Sasuke far too much of Naruto sometimes.

"Lady," Sasuke says, careful to keep both his face and his voice blank, "Is the war still going on?"

The lady scoffs, "Of course it is," she says, "You were only out for four days. It seems to be drawing to a close though, people are already calling it the Third Shinobi War."

Sasuke blinks.

Ah, he thinks, fuck.

* * *

The lady as it turns out, is named Nohara Yuna.

Sasuke knows the name Nohara, it had been the name of Kakashi's and Obito's deceased teammate. He wonders if the old lady and Rin are from the same clan.

Introductions are made, Sasuke is sure to leave off his last name when he introduces himself. If he is in the past, in a time before he was born, then it would be better to go around as a bastard Uchiha than one with a clan name.

After all, the Uchiha had always kept track of all their members, it would be odd for someone with no records to pop up claiming to be a full blooded Uchiha.

Sasuke is now, quite literally, Sasuke the Bastard.

He thinks Naruto and Sakura would be laughing at him if they ever found out.

Regardless, Sasuke is still an Uchiha and Uchiha don't leave debts unpaid. He's well enough to do menial tasks such as heavy lifting for Yuna.

So he does. Yuna is old and though she had once been a shinobi not even they are immune to the effects of old age.

He works for Yuna, Yuna doesn't tell the Uchiha about him and makes sure he's healing well enough to travel again.

It works out well.

* * *

Sasuke has no plan, no idea what he's going to do next.

Well, that's almost a lie, there is a list of things he wants to do, an almost plan, but he has no idea how to go about enacting it.

He knows he's at the end of the Third Shinobi War, knows that Kanabi Bridge must be coming up soon and that it's then that Madara will make his move.

Killing Madara and destroying Zetsu and his clones are a must. But he has no idea how he's going to take out that many clones without some slinking off to form more plans to bring back Kaguya. Sasuke isn't an idiot, knows that it's likely the Zetsu's have their eyes on Orochimaru should their plans with Madara fail. Knows that Orochimaru is dangerous in his own right.

But he's killed Orochimaru before, even if he nearly died in the process. His main focus should be on Zetsu. On destroying the statue that is used to take the bijuu out of their jinchuuriki.

Sasuke knows what he has to do, he just needs to figure out how to do it.

* * *

It takes three days after he started thinking about his plan to actually see the beginning of it. Yuna has been kind to him, seeming used to silence that Sasuke wore. She still spoke to him sometimes, asking about his life and how he had wound up wounded. Sasuke always answered carefully, he wove a story of being a traveller, of winding up attacked by nuke-nin on his way through the Land of Fire.

Yuna had snorted when he told her his story, but if his time with Orochimaru had taught him anything it was how to lie. He keeps up the act and soon she comes to accept it.

It doesn't stop her from asking nosy questions.

"Do you know any jutsu Sasuke?" Yuna's question startles him from where he's tending to the herbs in her garden.

Sasuke considers his answer, he could lie to Yuna, tell her he's an ordinary traveller, but that would make little sense considering his chakra levels. Sasuke is certain she can tell how much chakra he has.

She is still a shinobi after all, if if she is a medic.

"Yes," Sasuke answers honestly, "I've had a few teachers."

Yuna nods, looks at him like he's passed some sort of test, and continues drinking her tea on the small table she has set up outside.

"I thought so," she says, "But always better to check. You should be warned though, in a few days time my cousin and her team will be passing by. There is no chance they won't notice you and your abnormally large chakra."

Sasuke raises an eyebrow, "Why are you telling me this?"

Yuna meets his gaze evenly, "Because I want to know if you can fight. Because I want to know if you can hide your chakra so they won't find you."

Sasuke's eyes narrow, "I will not fight your cousin for you."

Yuna laughs, "I'm hardly asking that. No, I want you to meet them, then I want you to follow them when they leave."

"You're worried about her." It isn't a question.

"Just call it a bad feeling," Yuna says, "I'd like to make sure my cousin and her team get out of this mission alive."

Sasuke considers Yuna's reasoning, considers his debt to her.

"Alright," he says, "I'll do it."

His summons were predators for a reason.

Sasuke would repay his debt; and figure out more about when he is while he was at it.


	2. Fall To Your Knees

In one version of this story Kakashi wakes up with a scream lodged in his throat.

This is not that story.

Instead he bolts upright in bed, a friend's, an almost lover's name on his lips before he can stop it.

"Obito," he says, half raging, half hysterical, " _Obito."_

Kakashi places a hand on his shoulder, the place where a blade had cut so deep he wouldn't have healed from it and he-

He laughs.

He laughs because of all the stupid things Obito could have done, of all the ways the war could have ended Kakashi never thought of this one expect in daydreams and fantasies.

He laughs because once again Obito had managed to do the impossible.

He laughs because Obito expects him to do the same thing.

He laughs because he wants to, he wants to save Obito from being crushed and he wants to save Rin but _he isn't sure he can._

(Kakashi is old and weary and he wants nothing more than to keep his team safe but at this point-

At this point he isn't sure he's able too.)

* * *

Kakashi is late that day. Mostly because after he realized that today was the day they were setting out for Kannabi bridge he had a panic attack the likes he hadn't seen since the days after his father's death.

Eventually, when he forces himself to calm down he's fifteen minutes late.

Needless to say he rushes toward the meeting point and is promptly met with the disapproval and concern of his teammates and Minato.

Kakashi has to remind himself to breathe when he catches sight of them not dead, not as reanimated corpses or mud clones, or traitor's but as people, he had known for years. As people he was willing to risk his life for.

He schools his face into a stainless mask. Sharp as steel and pretends nothing is wrong when Minato asks him.

He doesn't respond to Obito's taunts about how Kakashi is the one late for once.

He thanks Rin for the medkit and ignores the concern in her eyes.

If he acknowledges it, if he thinks about them as people again he's going to break down and he can't let that happen. It's bad enough he's there, that he's standing in front of people that should be dead and someone who had betrayed their village. It's bad enough that he can't tell anyone about what is going to happen and it's bad enough that he has no time to prepare for this mission.

So he holds his head high, ignores them, and suggests they head out.

* * *

The stop they make at Rin's cousin's house after two days is, unexpected.

What's more unexpected is the chakra signature that leaps out at him, fire and lightning and fury underscored by loss so immense that Kakashi knows who it is it immediately.

Sasuke, he thinks, and remembers the genin with fear and anger in his heart. He remembers the missing nin with hatred and rage so immense that he let it swallow him whole until the world was threatened.

Then he fought, and with no one to tie him down he had been one of the fiercest fighters on the battlefield.

(Kakashi can't quite get the image of Sasuke cutting down Naruto and Sakura's clones as if they were nothing out of his head. Even when Kakashi himself had froze Sasuke had done what was needed to.

The boy is ruthless, and Kakashi wonders what he will do to keep his clan alive.)

Minato feels the chakra too and orders the rest of them to be wary.

What they arrive at Yuna's, Rin's cousin's, home they don't expect a boy who is barely a man to open the door. One black eye lazily serving them, the other eye, purple with the Rinnegan that has a tomoe on each circle follows the other's lead.

Sasuke looks perpetually disinterested in them. Then his eyes land on Kakashi's and he stops.

Kakashi's breath catches, Sasuke knows.

Kakashi isn't sure whether that's a good thing or not. On one hand, it means he could have an ally, on the other hand Sasuke could still want the village to burn for what it's done to his clan.

Kakashi stares back at Sasuke and Sasuke nods slightly.

Minato's eyes narrow and Rin looks as though she wants to launch herself at Sasuke. Before she can Minato opens his mouth.

"Where is Yuna?" Minato asks, and Sasuke smirks a little, infuriating as always.

"She's inside," Sasuke says evenly, meeting Minato's stare with his own unnerving one, "Come in."

Sasuke moves to the side, and Team Minato passes into the house.

The door shuts softly behind them.

* * *

Yuna knows something isn't right about the boy the moment he wakes and his Sharingan spins to life.

It's not until he's stayed with her a week that she realizes what it is. Because as old as she is, she was still a healer once upon a time and worked more closely with the Yamanaka's than she would have liked.

She knows the signs of War-Shock when she sees it. War-Shock, a name which she doesn't agree with because it came come from things beside war and even those who haven't experienced it can have it, is when a person has been through such a traumatic event that it never quite leaves them.

They may become paranoid, may have recurring nightmares and strong feelings of distrust toward others. They may react strongly when presented with something that reminds them of the trauma, they may also freeze up when presented with something that reminds them of the trauma they've experienced. They can be irritable and irrational when presented with something that reminds them of the trauma.

There are ways to help them of course, Yuna had helped her fair share of patients with War-Shock throughout the years and many of them had gotten it under control or told her it hadn't bothered them anymore.

Yuna knows she could help Sasuke, and while her family has always put others needs above her own Yuna feels no regret when she tells him what she wants him to do.

She could be sending him into a potentially triggering situation she knows, but she has never been a good Nohara and places her family above the life of a stranger who although she has been kind to, is still just that.

A stranger.

* * *

Yuna is arguing something with Minato and Sasuke pretends not to notice. Instead he's focused on Obito, a much younger, more carefree and loud Obito.

An Obito who hasn't helped murder their clan.

Sasuke repeats that to himself as has to remind himself that he can't kill this Obito. This Obito has done nothing wrong.

Yet, and Sasuke wonders if he can change that, can change the fate of their clan, of his mother and father and Itachi.

(He could stop Madara from ever getting his hands on Obito if he slaughter the other Uchiha right here. It would be clean, perfect, Sasuke has enough upper body strength to take a man's head off in move.

He would make an enemy of his village, of his mother and father and brother but if it kept them safe in the end wasn't it worth it?

Sasuke keeps his hands away from the kunai Yuna had given and does his best to ignore Obito.)

Abruptly Yuna turns to Sasuke and gives him a grin so sweet it turns cruel.

"You're going with them," she announces and Sasuke raises a delicate eyebrow.

Minato steps forward, eyes zoning in on Sasuke, studying him like he's a threat.

Which he is, but he doesn't think Minato knows how much of a threat Sasuke could be.

Kakashi does, Sasuke had recognized that world weary look in his eyes, had recognized that Kakashi's chakra signature was far too large for a boy his age.

So Sasuke knows, knows that Kakashi knows who he is, knows that his former sensei could protest whatever decision Minato makes.

But Sasuke merely meets Minato's gaze instead of voicing an opinion on the matter or trying to convince them to let him come.

Minato nods after a minute and gestures toward the door.

"I think we should spar first Yuna," Minato says, "It would be a good judge of his skill."

Well, Sasuke thinks, At least Naruto's father isn't stupid.

Yuna allows it, as long as it's far enough away from her house and gardens that nothing gets damaged.

Team Minato follows them until they are well away from Yuna's house. But once they find a clearing to use Minato's team hesitates to take to the trees to watch.

Kakashi meets Sasuke's eyes and there's caution in them. As though Kakashi is reluctant to let Minato fight him.

Sasuke looks at Kakashi and tries to convey without words that he won't try to hurt Minato.

Kakashi gets it if the following order from his mouth is anything to go by.

"Let's go," Kakashi says, already turning toward the treeline.

Obito complains about leaving their sensei without backup but goes with Kakashi anyway.

Once the others are gone Minato stares at Sasuke.

Sasuke nods and they begin.

* * *

Minato is fast and while Sasuke is fast as well he's not fast enough to keep up with Minato when the other is using his full speed without Sasuke using his Sharingan.

So when Minato strikes, full speed and half strength, Sasuke lets the black of his iris bleed red.

He dodges just in time. Minato turns ready to launch himself at Sasuke again but Sasuke is already on him, kunai flashing as it clangs against the one Minato brought up to defend himself.

Sasuke smirks at the shock on Minato's face when he sees the red of Sasuke's Sharingan.

* * *

Minato had been expecting several things when he and his team came across an abundance of chakra near Yuna's house. He had expected a fight of some sort, to find Yuna dead.

He hadn't expected a man who looked nearly identical to the Uchiha in the village to answer the door. He hadn't expected said man to have a rather strange looking Rinnegan of all things.

Most importantly, he hadn't expected him to actually be an Uchiha. But the red of the Sharingan doesn't lie and here he is sparring with one of Fugaku's clansmen.

It's all rather odd, and Minato wonder why there's a renegade Uchiha living with a Nohara of all things.

But he doesn't have time to give it much thought as Sasuke strikes again, as swift and as deadly as a cobra. Minato recognizes some of the moves he's using from his spars against Fugaku when they were younger.

If there was any doubt in his mind that Sasuke is an Uchiha it vanishes the moment the other uses moves that only Uchiha should know. They're not as refined as the ones he's seen used in the village by other Uchiha's but there's grace to them and they could be deadly just the same.

Minato has a feeling Sasuke is holding back, but so is he.

The blond calls a halt to the match when the two of them have kunai's at each other's throats.

"You can come with us," Minato says, not quite trusting Sasuke but confident enough in the others skills that he won't be a burden and that Minato could beat him if given the chance, "But we're taking you to Konoha right after the mission."

Sasuke tilts his head to the side, as if he's considering something.

"Why would I came with you to Konoha?" he asks and Minato blinks.

"Because you have a clan there," Minato says, "A family."

"Only cousins," Sasuke muses, "And I lost my immediate family a long time ago."

"You should still come," Minato says, "They'll want to meet you." _And we can keep a better eye on you there,_ he adds mentally. Minato does not want someone like Sasuke falling into Konoha's enemies.

Sasuke seems to understand.

"I'll come with you to Konoha," he agrees, "If only to see how it is."

* * *

Danzo is an old man with too much ambition and not enough skill, Orochimaru thinks with distaste as he eyes the man that had come into his home uninvited.

Orochimaru had half a mind to set his snakes on Danzo. No one came into Orochimaru's home unless invited.

No one.

But the old man had been waiting for him when he had come home and while Orochimaru could admire the skill it took to sneak into his house of all places he also wondered what Danzo would look like dead and on an operating table.

Danzo seems to catch those thoughts as he smiles, thick and twisted.

"I have an offer for you," Danzo says, "One that will allow you to work on whatever you want."

Orochimaru narrows his eyes at the old man.

Something in him wakes up, and Orochimaru smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *nervous laughter* it's been a while hasn't it? ahahaha....anyway, this story is still being written its just that i had to figure out some plot things and then my mental health took a downward turn so i didnt update.
> 
> whoops. but here it is! an update for war of snakes!
> 
> if anyone is interested i have a tumblr at sparklecryptid if you want to send me prompts or whatever. I'm always accepting them, and i love it when people talk to me so dont be a stranger!


End file.
